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No. 1844 ISSN 1023 / 6996
MONDAY 18th - THURSDAY 21st JUNE 2012 Class mare: Salutation looks overdue for another win and faces weaker on Tuesday
FLAMINGO PARK 12:20pm (Monday) p.5
VAAL TURF 11:20am (Tuesday) p.13
SCOTTSVILLE 12:20pm (Wednesday) p.26
VAAL SAND 12:00pm (Thursday) p.32
RUGBY 5 OPEN FM 88 HANDICAP over 2400m at Vaal on Tuesday
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Master jockey Piere Strydom is worth a good few lengths on any day. He gets an opportunity to strut his stuff when he pilots the one-paced, but capable, Alessandria at the Vaal on Tuesday. Stuart Pettigrew’s Salutation is the class horse in the race and she could give Strydom a headache if back to her best.
he serious racing action is to be found over the weekends, and the R90 000 Rugby 5 Open Handicap to be run over 2400m has attracted a rather modest field of eight. Despite the lack of serious depth, the spectacle of Strydom at his tactical best should be enough to brighten the midweek mood at the cold Vereeniging track.
Class
good trainers and that as Salutation stayed all day, she would be a big runner in the SA Oaks. Salutation was to confirm her trainer’s sentiments and good judgement when going on to run a blinder in the Gr2 SA Oaks a month later, just behind Arcola, who turned the tables on her. Her longstanding owner Peet Diedericks has walked the bumpy and unpredictable road of horseracing for years and has been there and got the t-shirt. Salutation has been a loyal servant to him. In the ensuing two years she has won three of her twenty-four starts after the SA Oaks run and achieved a highest merit rating of 96 in the middle of last year. That level of ability when coupled with her solid sixth in carrying 60kgs and finishing only three lengths behind Gorongosa in the Listed Spook Express in mid-April creates a sense of confidence. Her last run behind the high-class Princess Of Light in a Pinnacle Stakes run over 2600m at Turffontein at the end of May was also inspiring and says that she may prove too good for this lot.
The blonde Striker rides Alessandria for Varsfontein Stud and trainer Geoff Woodruff’s three year old keeps catching the eye as a likely winner. But there is little question that Stuart Pettigrew’s Requiem mare, Salutation, stands out as the proven stayer with a touch of class in this field. And counting in her favour is the fact that her next win is probably already a year overdue. Salutation won the Listed Oaks Trial run over the Turffontein 2000m at the beginning of April 2010 when she was produced late by the now retired Guillermo Figueroa to hold off Earn Here? the fast- finishing Tigress, with subsequent Oaks winner Arcola finishing third. That’s history Her stablemate Or Else has won four of her you are probably thinking. twenty outings and is a game Casey Tibbs mare Winning trainer Stuart Pettigrew is on record who has also lost the winning recipe after apafter that race as saying that good horses make pearing promising. She has a winning weight
Great Britain
Stormy Seas
Geoff Woodruff’s beautifully-bred three year old Alessandria was touted as something special through the course of her opening career runs. She ran four unlucky seconds over too short before getting it right with a 6,50 length win over 2000m at Turffontein at the end of February. She then ran a fair third behind Heyouneverknow in the Sun Chariot, and then upped her game with a promising 1,25 length second to Markofdistinction in the Oaks Trial. She was beaten by Turkish Delight and Sea Passage at her last outing when going down 3,25 lengths receiving a kilo and half-kilo respectively over the Vaal 2200m. She now gets 3kgs and 1kg from the two stablemates and this makes the game more interesting, and a lot more open.
Sea Passage is a year older than her stablemate and is also a four time winner for close on double the amount of racecourse appearances. She technically has the beating of Turkish Delight on their last meeting and on the weight turnaround here, but one has the feeling that Turkish Delight is the more progressive – for want of a better word. Sea Passage stays all day and will be very fit as she is scheduled to run at the Vaal over 2400m on Thursday 14 June as we go to press.
Alessandria, a long-striding one-pacer, enjoys the services of the master of pace and tactical strategy, Piere Strydom, and she could go out and dictate matters. She hardly looks the sort to retire a onetime winner. Ormonde Ferraris sends out the Silvano four year old Elodie, who does not appear to have recaptured the level of form that saw her win two of her first seven outings.
Dictate
Tactical? Aztec Gold ran wide at her only attempt at serious ground, so we would have learnt absolutely nothing from that effort on 12 April. She unsurprisingly ended up running last and 15 lengths behind Sea Passage in that lowlyrated MR 70 Handicap. This daughter of The Sheik showed promise when winning her maiden at her fourth start and the decision to up her ground here may well be pure frustration. Or is it some shrewd tactical thinking on the part of her connections? Let’s wait and see. She has run on well at both of her last two starts over shorter, and with a galloping weight she could surely run into place money. The absence of pace in this event could play into Piere Strydom’s hands and the great jockey will have arrived on course with his homework done and a strategy worked out. Turkish Delight could give them both a fright, but if Salutation runs below her capable best, Alessandria could go all the way.
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turnaround with the likes of Turkish Delight, Sea Passage and Alessandria on their last meeting, and as a twice course and distance winner, she comes into the reckoning on the 53kg mark. St John Gray has a must-include Pick Six coupling in the two Sarge daughters, Turkish Delight and Sea Passage, who both stay well. The four year old Turkish Delight gets the services of the recently returned from injury Gavin Lerena and she looks the better of the two. But she only gets 3kgs from Salutation after finishing 1,5 lengths in front of Pettigrew’s mare when receiving a massive 8kgs from her in the Spook Express. So she cannot beat Salutation on that. But Turkish Delight is a versatile sort who can run from any position no matter how the race pans out and she is very consistent.
She suffered an epistaxis in her run after recording her second win and was off for five months thereafter. Her six subsequent runs have not been inspiring and although she ran a fair race when tiring late in the 2600m Listed Spook Express to finish fourth and 1,50 lengths behind Gorongosa, she is showing the same old symptoms of stopping late when the chips are down. Wallace Tolmay’s Kabool mare Cyclone Barbara has won five of her forty starts and she is very fit, but totally formless. She has run no-show shockers at her last six starts and has been guilty of inconsistent showings throughout her career. Will she stay? Her dam won up to 2200m but going ground after forty runs speaks of serious head-scratching and desperation. She did try 2450m once and ran seventeen lengths off Arcola in the SA Oaks two years ago. That was her one and only try at serious ground. She cannot be fancied.
(R4.000 nom, R8.000 LF)
HIGHLANDS Tel: Mike Sharkey 082 372 2682 email: highstud@iafrica.com www.highlandsfarmstud.co.za